Overall awareness of multitouch attribution is fairly high, but hurdles remain in terms of advertiser adoption. Advertisers have just started to identify internal experts who are focused on return on investment for each media channel.

Sydney-based Nikki Retallick will take the reins as head of data and attribution APAC focusing on those areas which AOL deems are the two fundamental building blocks in its unified programmatic solution for publishers, advertisers and agencies alike.

A sophisticated unified measurement model will yield major marketing outcomes. In order for MMM and MTA to exist harmoniously they must be effectively unified in a single model. They must establish the same link between marketing actions to marketing objectives, and they must process the same data inputs, considerations, and variables.

Convertro has been named a Visionary in the Gartner 2015 Magic Quadrant for Digital Marketing Analytics. Convertro was one of 12 companies that Gartner evaluated in the first Magic Quadrant for this important new marketing analytics technology category...

“This is an area we’re in high collaboration with Verizon, getting more into the mobile programmatic space,” she said. “Coming from the multitouch attribution space, that would be our expectation – to start doing programmatic TV and more mobile advertising. It will supercharge our multichannel attribution in the areas of cross-device and set-top box data.”

Local weather, not just ads, influences purchases, said Amy Mitchell, general manager of Convertro, a division of AOL Platforms. "It's about planning and making predictions on how media will perform through machine learning," she said, adding that it's not necessarily in real-time, but within a couple of weeks.

In short, multi-touch attribution modeling is all about helping marketers and agencies maximize return on their advertising spend across online and offline media channels with granular insights into each channel, format, ad creative and audience segment. For example, a fashion brand can better understand which part(s) of their marketing campaign (i.e., a TV spot, an online video ad, a catalogue) influenced a customer’s purchase and to what extent, allowing them to adjust their ad spend accordingly and in real-time.

By reducing its reliance on network affiliates that did not drive new customers, during the last holiday season, Wine Enthusiast was able to cut costs paid to affiliates by 33% while simultaneously increasing total ROI by 49%.

“Part of it is justifying where you are spending your money and why,” Guzman says. “We make budgeting decisions based on what channels are working well, and to get a confirmation to turn the lights on.”

Which 50% of your advertising is wasted? That’s the question that troubled department store magnate, John Wanamaker. But now companies like Convertro are making some progress in coming up with an an answer.